Virginia Beach City Council Meeting: Golf Course Sale and ITA Plan Update – June 17, 2026
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Virginia Beach City Council Meeting: Golf Course Sale and ITA Master Plan Update – June 17, 2026
The Virginia Beach City Council met on June 17, 2026, to receive briefings on two major initiatives: the proposed sale and redevelopment of Virginia Beach National Golf Course and an update to the Interfacility Traffic Area (ITA) Master Plan. The Council also approved the consent agenda, heard public testimony on a hotel project, and made appointments to various boards and commissions.
Consent Calendar
- Approved a consent agenda that included capital improvement program amendments for stormwater projects, renewal of EMS agency permits, a franchise agreement for a pedal cab service, readoption of remote participation policy, appointments of three reviewers for street/alley closures, extension of conditions for a right-of-way closure, authorization for the Virginia Beach Development Authority (VBDA) to use up to $1.9 million for pre-development of a parking facility, temporary encroachment permits, appropriation of funds for fire apparatus and from the Commonwealth Opportunity Fund for two companies (Acoustical Sheet Metal and Zim American Integrated Shipping), acceptance of grant funds for opioid abatement, law enforcement equipment, primary election expenses, and EMS personnel costs, and approval of 16 planning items (variances and conditional use permits) on consent.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Lyndol Stone (Commonwealth Lodging) expressed strong support for the Hotel Indigo project at 2809 Atlantic Avenue, stating it aligns with the resort area strategic plan, will generate approximately $10 million in new annual taxable sales, and create 45–75 year-round jobs, with no upfront city capital required.
- Holly Martier asked whether the project would cost the city extra money. Councilmember Remick explained it is funded entirely through future new sales tax revenue, not from existing city funds or additional taxes.
- Vancat El Swapu opposed the Hotel Indigo project, arguing that the $5 million “loan” from VBDA is effectively a grant repaid only through foregone sales tax, meaning the city will receive zero new sales tax revenue from the hotel while providing taxpayer money to the developer.
Discussion Items
- Virginia Beach National Golf Course – RFP and Proposed Sale: Economic Development Director Emily Archer briefed the Council on the history, current condition (deteriorating, needing $7.7 million in capital repairs), and the RFP process that resulted in selecting Dragus Companies. The proposal includes a $17.9 million purchase price, $38 million private investment in the golf course (designed by Pete Dye protégé Timothy Liddy), 659 mixed-income housing units (over half at or below 120% AMI), a child care facility, and 45 acres of preserved woodlands. The city would invest $7.9 million upfront for public infrastructure and a contingency, recouped via future tax revenue (estimated $3.4 million annually). Councilmembers expressed strong support, noting no houses on fairways, a 99-year repurchase option, and affordable golf rates ($69 in-season, $49 off-season). Councilmember Barbara Henley raised concerns about traffic, drainage, soil suitability, noise from Oceana, and the lack of early public input. Councilmember Henley clarified that the proposal is just the beginning of a public process with future rezoning hearings. The Council directed staff to proceed to a public hearing and then to a vote.
- ITA Master Plan Update: Clay Dills presented an update to the ITA Master Plan, covering sports tourism (new tournament baseball complex, multi-use championship field, cross-country course, and disc golf), light industrial/flex development, and agriculture/open space preservation. Key projections: phase one sports tourism ($62.8 million public investment) could generate 125,000 annual room nights and $3.36 million in annual taxes; phase one industrial ($26.4 million for roads and stormwater) could yield 1,148 jobs and $1.2 million in annual taxes. Councilmembers discussed the need to balance economic development with environmental and community character. Barbara Henley questioned the need for industrial uses in the ITA, noted that corporate landing still has undeveloped land, and emphasized the importance of the cross-country course as low-hanging fruit. Others, including the Mayor, stressed the growing demand for defense-related industrial space. The Council voted to forward the plan to the Planning Commission for further consideration.
Key Outcomes
- Virginia Beach National Golf Course: Council accepted the proposed terms and directed staff to schedule a public hearing, with a future vote on the sale. The decision preserves an 18-hole public course, includes a 99-year repurchase option, and requires all future housing to go through rezoning.
- ITA Master Plan: Council directed staff to bring the updated plan to the Planning Commission for formal review and consideration.
- Hotel Indigo: Approved by a vote of 9-0, endorsing the tourism project and authorizing actions through the state Tourism Development Financing Program.
- Consent Agenda: Approved by a vote of 9-0 (with Councilmember Jackson Green abstaining on the June 9th minutes and Councilmember Shulman abstaining on the TCC board appointment).
- Appointments: Approved by a vote of 9-0, including student and citizen appointments to the Arts and Humanities Commission, Clean Community Commission, COG Review Committee, Flood Prevention Bond Referendum Oversight Board, Human Rights Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission, Public Library Board, Resort Advisory Commission, Tidewater Community College Board, Transition Area/Interim Facility Traffic Committee, and Virginia Beach Towing and Advisory Board.
Meeting Transcript
And uh Mr. Bahaney, I understand we have a couple items to discuss today. We do, Mr. Mayor. The first item will be a briefing from our economic development director, Emily Archer. She's going to brief City Council on the results from the Virginia Beach National RFP. Emily, the floor is yours. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of City Council. Thank you for having me. As the manager just mentioned, we'll provide an overview of the golf course, a little bit of the history and the background, we'll review the RFP process to date, examine the selected proposal for Virginia Beach National Golf Course, review the purchase terms negotiated, and seek your direction on next steps. The clubhouse of the golf course is pictured on the screen on the right. Currently, the city owns the land, it's leased to the Virginia Beach Development Authority, VBDA, and has a management agreement with the operator of Virginia Beach Golf Club LLC for operations. The current operator's term expires at the end of this year. Just for orientation, this is located at 2500 tournament drive off of Princess Ann Road. It's about everything in yellow is 350 acres. It's used as an 18-hole 7,432-yard call course designed by golf architect Pete Dye for both tournament play and public play. It also contains the YMCA in green on the image on the upper left, 50 acres of the YMC's first T nine whole youth golf course. In February, you all heard this item to be transferred to the YMCA and directed that we uh move forward with that transfer. That subdivision process is underway and the transfer is pending at this time. Uh it's zoned AG, it's in council district two. You can see the assessed value at 4.8 million and the market value estimate at 6.5 million. The red box on the right hand side of the image is about 42 acres. I wanted to point out that are outside of the ITA and APZ noise regulations. Some bit of the history and the background of the course, the city originally leased this property to the Virginia Beach Development Authority in 1997 for the development of a tournament players club, TPC. The City of Virginia Beach then went on to purchase the course from TPC for about 4.6 million in 2006. VBDA and Virginia Beach Golf Corps LLC, the current operator, entered into management agreement in 2007. That is the one I mentioned that expires at the end of this year. Following that audit, the VBDA conducted uh comprehensive facility condition assessments of both the course and the building facilities and identified about $7.7 million in capital repairs that were needed. VBDA appropriated about 1.8 million of innovation park land cells that they had available to address some of the capital maintenance needs. Since that time, they've invested um uh in a new HVA system for the clubhouse, a whole new roof, and about um uh life one was recently um completed uh for improvement to help the overflow of the drainage from the golf course. It is the um outfall for the drainage system of the golf course. Long story short, you can see kind of a comparison of the two aerials from 2005 to 2025 on the screen. Um, although it was designed by a preeminent golf course architect, it's not what it once was. You can see where the sand traps or the waste areas are overgrown now, erosion is destabilizing destabilizing the lake banks, car paths are deteriorating. The overall golf course has been diluted, lessening the challenge for players and reducing the overall golf experience. It is a popular golf course still, um, and it is generating revenue. This is a financial summary showing uh the current uh revenue coming in from the golf course to the city. Uh so there's currently the operations agreement has a profit sharing of the net income over 100,000 per year, and then there's an operation payments that's split between the city and uh VBDA at 5%. Um you can kind of see the average annual over this 18-year period at the on the top row of this uh table. Um, the total operation and taxes remitted annually averaged over that 18-year period about 217,000 dollars per year. But for capital maintenance needs, only that 15% that comes to VB Day is appropriated for capital maintenance. As VBD is responsible for everything over $5,000 at the course. And the red numbers that you see show that VBD's portion of the capital maintenance receipts is not adequate for the current level of maintenance needed. The audit also attracted attention from the development community and city received unsolicited proposals from several entities. So following the mounting capital expenditures and the unsolicited proposals received, and September of 2025, City Council authorized the release of an RFP for sell of the golf course, retaining an 18-hole public course. It was widely advertised for 45 days. We received nine responses in November 2025. Five of those responses had new golf course operations, and four of those responses had new golf course operations with the housing component with them. We shortlisted four of the respondents, two with a housing component and two with just new golf course operations, and went through our series of interviews between January and February 2026. And then in February 2026, City Council authorized the negotiation of a term sheet with a top ranking respondent.
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